We’re gonna need a bigger stick.
Creative Staff:
Story: Adam Glass
Art: Pat Olliffe
Colors: Gabe Eltaeb
Letterer: Sal Cipriano
What They Say:
A young and scared H.P. Lovecraft joins the Rough Riders as they ride again against an ancient evil. This threat has returned to our earthly plane from the great beyond, and is hellbent on killing anything in its path. Our heroes soon learn that these unfortunate souls are not deceased, but instead have been turned into an ARMY OF THE DEAD! And the true nature of this ancient evil will change one of our beloved members forevermore!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
With the third miniseries getting underway previously, Adam Glass and Pat Olliffe delivered exactly what I expected in bringing aspects of the team together again. While we don’t get all of them together until this issue, the pieces were all being drawn in and we got to see a lot of fun character interactions while getting a handle on this new mystery. That has each character feeling like they continue their stories even while not involved, expanding their life beyond the page itself. It read well and looked great, but that’s expected with Olliffe seemingly having such a great time playing in this time period with a rich cast of characters to delve into and in some fun settings that are richly detailed.
With this installment we get what’s essentially an extension of that in a good way as the various pairings and groups that are out there deal with their stories before coming back together. This has Roosevelt and Houdini bringing Lovecraft into the picture more firmly as they know they’ll need him to save the world while we also see Annie and Edison doing some investigation of the dead woman only to have a small host of the dead trying to kill them. Even Monk and Jack run into a few problems with the innkeeper while doing their investigation for clues as she reveals herself to be pretty much a part of a cult and not entirely human at this point. There are a lot of little movements that we get throughout the book but they all serve to push character personality and how they respond to things, such as Annie and Edison, as well as how they investigate things.
So when they all come together later on with Roosevelt now known to be a part of it as well, I was glad that even after the way things ended before that they all basically work together. There’s no love lost to be sure but they understand the nature of what’s at stake considering past adventures together – and that they’re not really the Rough Riders without him. Though not a lot of details are really revealed or figured out here, the nod as to what’s going on becomes clearer through Dutch folktales with a group of riders that could be behind everything. The mystery is expanded upon more than anything else here, though Roosevelt being cursed by the innkeeper before she kills herself is particularly chilling, and that expansion is thoroughly engaging even if it doesn’t feel like there’s a lot of forward momentum.
In Summary:
Bringing the band back together is the main thrust here as the various explorations from the first issue reach their end and everyone has to pool information together. I continue to like the distinctive cast of characters that we have here and the way there are a lot of strong bonds between them in different configurations, making reunion moments very enjoyable. The darkness is definitely strong throughout this as it unfolds and I like seeing how it all comes together and getting a few more slivers of what’s really at stake and what they’ll face. Glass continues to deliver an engaging work with a big cast of characters and Olliffe makes me want him to work on either one-shots or miniseries for each of the characters so we can explore their worlds through his eyes even more.
Grade: B+
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: AfterShock Comics
Release Date: March 28th, 2018
MSRP: $3.99